As for use on full-program material, I just happened to do a mastering project for Nate Denver's Neck while I was testing out the plugin, and he had two mixes that had ended up in mono. I wish the low-frequency filter came up higher than 250 Hz to allow excluding more midrange from the stereo effect, but other than that small detail, I found bx_stereomaker super-effective for giving mono tracks a little extra space in the mix without applying reverb or setting up the old copy/pan/delay method I've been employing for years. With the Hi-Damp and Mono-Freq controls, you can adjust the high and low frequencies of the pseudo-side signal to alter theįrequency curve of the stereo-ized material, and in so doing, keep the highs and lows more mono. There are meters for overall phase correlation, L/R balance, and RMS and peak output level. (Pan affects the placement of the center signal whereas Tilt leaves the mid signal centered and just adjusts the side-to-side balance.) You can solo each of the channels (mid or side) separately to hear exactly what is getting spread out to the extremities. There is a control for the overall width of the effect, as well as a knob for Pan or Tilt. Counterintuitively, at the lower settings (around 20 Hz), you can hear the most effect on the vocal range, where it sounds like a stereo doubler. In practice, this makes for a drastically different sound depending on where it is set. The main control is labeled Tone, and it chooses the 'slicing frequency interval', according to the manual.

(I won't waste words saying anything about the freebies aside from: DOWNLOAD THEM! THEY'RE FREE!)īrainworx bx_stereomaker is a very unique plugin that takes a mono ('mid') track and creates a stereo image, through a digitally simulated 'side' signal. I got to audition five of the plugins offered by the Alliance, in addition to the four free ones they're offering on their site. The concept was to offer customers a one-stop portal for high-end plugins modeled after analog units by SPL, Vertigo Sound, and Elysia, as well as Brainworx's own well- respected bx series. When the German plugin experts at Brainworx decided to port some of the best contemporary German and American hardware into the digital domain, they started a new company called the Plugin Alliance.

Brainworx plugins bundle v2